Do you remember what you where doing 50 years ago?

[hrpearce]

I was only 7 so I don't remember much except the talk from adults. It was still another 9 years until we got our first TV.

[Howard]

Fifty years ago I was not born. I wasn't even an idea.
But I've ALWAYS known about the JFK assassination. It's not something that we studied at school, it simply has always been talked about,
The shots that rang out in Texas 50 years ago were heard in every corner of every continent, it seems.
H

[Richard Farrant]

It is funny when that question is asked, because I can vividly remember, I would have been about 12 and was at Boy Scouts night. My Dad came to collect me and he told the Scoutmasters the news that had just come in.

[Lang]

It really was a significant event. An "untouchable" American president being assassinated shocked the world (although he was not the first).

I was in Fremantle unloading a truck on the dock and there was an American submarine alongside. Interesting talking to the sailors. Of course there was shock that their President was shot but signs of distress were little.

Most of those I talked to were of Republican leaning and although there was huge affront that the leader of their nation had been killed, Kennedy personally was not particularly liked and even then they realised his public relations machine outstripped reality - the John and Jaquie show.

He did have really good speech writers.

I thought it was interesting that these American servicemen would freely talk critically of Kennedy only hours after the reports came in. They claimed his real achievements were few, even civil rights reforms were forced on him by public outcry far ahead of his plans and his atomic brinkmanship and support of foul dictators around the world were brought up.

His death was seen as some sort of attack on the free world at a time when the fate of the planet rested in the hands of two men and gained much more significance internationally than it would today. It certainly shocked and even panicked a lot of people.

[Keith Webb]

I had turned 8 the month before and I can remember hearing the news reports and being told about it by my mother, pretty sure it was before we had a TV too, as I remember seeing the newspapers the next day. It was big.

Mum had a 1956 FE Holden and dad still had his mother's old black 1949 Rover 5 light with the red primer showing through.

[Ken Hughes]

Mum was luxing the carpet in the sitting room,I was 10 yrs old,and the radio made an important broadcast telling us that JFK had been shot,very sad it was.No TV in those days as well.He was well liked at home then.

[jack neville]

I have trouble remembering what I did yesterday half the time, let alone when I was five.

[Catherine Blair]

Dad had joined the air force two days prior.

[Marc Montgomery]

happened in the afternoon. very young but a special announcement made over school speakers .. I was a bit too young to understand the significance but remember that such a mid-afternoon announcement over the speakers (tannoy for Brits) was really unusual and that there was strange atmosphere in the school for the rest of the afternoon.

Interesting shows on TV recently including ballistics tests of that type of rifle and the somewhate unusual full jacket bullets.. (long, round nose , vs more typical pointy nose)

Ballistics and simulated tests showed one bullet could indeed have passed through Kennedy into the governor and through him.

also head shot recoiling backwards explained. and skull fractures show bullet came from behind. (recreations used human skull filled with ballistic gel- results very similar to kennedy autopsy results)

somewhat mysterious third bullet recreated showing timing etc, and as such it hit an overhead street sign and deflected.. the sign/traffic light, long since replaced along with the evidence.

Shell casings resting place noted, recreated showing that as Oswald moved to adjust shot, the ejected casings would end up in similar locations.

verdict...one shooter.

[John McGillivray]

A recent show on Discovery Network has a different conclusion about the third bullet.
http://jfkthesmokinggun.ca/